Antiquities of the Jews — Book 8, Chapter 12

1. Now Asa, the king of Jerusalem, was of an excellent character, and
had a regard to God, and neither did nor designed any thing but what had
relation to the observation of the laws. He made a reformation of his
kingdom, and cut off whatsoever was wicked therein, and purified it from
every impurity. Now he had an army of chosen men that were armed with
targets and spears; out of the tribe of Judah three hundred thousand;
and out of the tribe of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew bows, two
hundred and fifty thousand. But when he had already reigned ten years,
Zerah, king of Ethiopia, 30 made an expedition against him, with a great
army, of nine hundred thousand footmen, and one hundred thousand
horsemen, and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah, a
city that belonged to the tribe of Judah. Now when Zerah had passed so
far with his own army, Asa met him, and put his army in array over
against him, in a valley called Zephathah, not far from the city; and
when he saw the multitude of the Ethiopians, he cried out, and besought
God to give him the victory, and that he might kill many ten thousands
of the enemy: "For," said he, 31 "I depend on nothing else but that
assistance which I expect from thee, which is able to make the fewer
superior to the more numerous, and the weaker to the stronger; and
thence it is alone that I venture to meet Zerah, and fight him."

2. While Asa was saying this, God gave him a signal of victory, and
joining battle cheerfully on account of what God had foretold about it,
he slew a great many of the Ethiopians; and when he had put them to
flight, he pursued them to the country of Gerar; and when they left off
killing their enemies, they betook themselves to spoiling them, [for the
city Gerar was already taken,] and to spoiling their camp, so that they
carried off much gold, and much silver, and a great deal of [other]
prey, and camels, and great cattle, and flocks of sheep. Accordingly,
when Asa and his army had obtained such a victory, and such wealth from
God, they returned to Jerusalem. Now as they were coming, a prophet,
whose name was Azariah, met them on the road, and bade them stop their
journey a little; and began to say to them thus: That the reason why
they had obtained this victory from God was this, that they had showed
themselves righteous and religious men, and had done every thing
according to the will of God; that therefore, he said, if they
persevered therein, God would grant that they should always overcome
their enemies, and live happily; but that if they left off his worship,
all things shall fall out on the contrary; and a time should come,
wherein no true prophet shall be left in your whole multitude, nor a
priest who shall deliver you a true answer from the oracle; but your
cities shall be overthrown, and your nation scattered over the whole
earth, and live the life of strangers and wanderers. So he advised them,
while they had time, to be good, and not to deprive themselves of the
favor of God. When the king and the people heard this, they rejoiced;
and all in common, and every one in particular, took great care to
behave themselves righteously. The king also sent some to take care that
those in the country should observe the laws also.

3. And this was the state of Asa, king of the two tribes. I now return
to Baasha, the king of the multitude of the Israelites, who slew Nadab,
the son of Jeroboam, and retained the government. He dwelt in the city
Tirzah, having made that his habitation, and reigned twenty-four years.
He became more wicked and impious than Jeroboam or his son. He did a
great deal of mischief to the multitude, and was injurious to God, who
sent the prophet Jehu, and told him beforehand that his whole family
should be destroyed, and that he would bring the same miseries on his
house which had brought that of Jeroboam to ruin; because when he had
been made king by him, he had not requited his kindness, by governing
the multitude righteously and religiously; which things, in the first
place, tended to their own happiness, and, in the next place, were
pleasing to God: that he had imitated this very wicked king Jeroboam;
and although that man's soul had perished, yet did he express to the
life his wickedness; and he said that he should therefore justly
experience the like calamity with him, since he had been guilty of the
like wickedness. But Baasha, though he heard beforehand what miseries
would befall him and his whole family for their insolent behavior, yet
did not he leave off his wicked practices for the time to come, nor did
he care to appear other than worse and worse till he died; nor did he
then repent of his past actions, nor endeavor to obtain pardon of God
for them, but did as those do who have rewards proposed to them, when
they have once in earnest set about their work, they do not leave off
their labors; for thus did Baasha, when the prophet foretold to him what
would come to pass, grow worse, as if what were threatened, the
perdition of his family, and the destruction of his house, [which are
really among the greatest of evils,] were good things; and, as if he
were a combatant for wickedness, he every day took more and more pains
for it: and at last he took his army and assaulted a certain
considerable city called Ramah, which was forty furlongs distant from
Jerusalem; and when he had taken it, he fortified it, having determined
beforehand to leave a garrison in it, that they might thence make
excursions, and do mischief to the kingdom of Asa.

4. Whereupon Asa was afraid of the attempts the enemy might make upon
him; and considering with himself how many mischiefs this army that was
left in Ramah might do to the country over which he reigned, he sent
ambassadors to the king of the Damascenes, with gold and silver,
desiring his assistance, and putting him in mind that we have had a
friendship together from the times of our forefathers. So he gladly
received that sum of money, and made a league with him, and broke the
friendship he had with Baasha, and sent the commanders of his own forces
unto the cities that were under Baasha's dominion, and ordered them to
do them mischief. So they went and burnt some of them, and spoiled
others; Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmain 32 and many others. Now when the
king of Israel heard this, he left off building and fortifying Ramah,
and returned presently to assist his own people under the distresses
they were in; but Asa made use of the materials that were prepared for
building that city, for building in the same place two strong cities,
the one of which was called Geba, and the other Mizpah; so that after
this Baasha had no leisure to make expeditions against Asa, for he was
prevented by death, and was buried in the city Tirzah; and Elah his son
took the kingdom, who, when he had reigned two years, died, being
treacherously slain by Zimri, the captain of half his army; for when he
was at Arza, his steward's house, he persuaded some of the horsemen that
were under him to assault Elah, and by that means he slew him when he
was without his armed men and his captains, for they were all busied in
the siege of Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines.

5. When Zimri, the captain of the army, had killed Elah, he took the
kingdom himself, and, according to Jehu's prophecy, slew all the house
of Baasha; for it came to pass that Baasha's house utterly perished, on
account of his impiety, in the same manner as we have already described
the destruction of the house of Jeroboam. But the army that was
besieging Gibbethon, when they heard what had befallen the king, and
that when Zimri had killed him, he had gained the kingdom, they made
Omri their general king, who drew off his army from Gibbethon, and came
to Tirzah, where the royal palace was, and assaulted the city, and took
it by force. But when Zimri saw that the city had none to defend it, he
fled into the inmost part of the palace, and set it on fire, and burnt
himself with it, when he had reigned only seven days. Upon which the
people of Israel were presently divided, and part of them would have
Tibni to be king, and part Omri; but when those that were for Omri's
ruling had beaten Tibni, Omri reigned over all the multitude. Now it was
in the thirtieth year of the reign of Asa that Omri reigned for twelve
years; six of these years he reigned in the city Tirzah, and the rest in
the city called Semareon, but named by the Greeks Samaria; but he
himself called it Semareon, from Semer, who sold him the mountain
whereon he built it. Now Omri was no way different from those kings that
reigned before him, but that he grew worse than they, for they all
sought how they might turn the people away from God by their daily
wicked practices; and on that account it was that God made one of them
to be slain by another, and that no one person of their families should
remain. This Omri also died in Samaria and Ahab his son succeeded him.

6. Now by these events we may learn what concern God hath for the
affairs of mankind, and how he loves good men, and hates the wicked, and
destroys them root and branch; for many of these kings of Israel, they
and their families, were miserably destroyed, and taken away one by
another, in a short time, for their transgression and wickedness; but
Asa, who was king of Jerusalem, and of the two tribes, attained, by
God's blessing, a long and a blessed old age, for his piety and
righteousness, and died happily, when he had reigned forty and one
years; and when he was dead, his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him in the
government. He was born of Asa's wife Azubah. And all men allowed that
he followed the works of David his forefather, and this both in courage
and piety; but we are not obliged now to speak any more of the affairs
of this king.